Birthday blessings!

 

    Hello from ..... somewhere :) I am traveling like crazy this week through the end of Oc... well the end of the year really. God has been so very good to me in scheduling meetings and keeping me busy! 

    These last two weeks I was able to 'lie low' and hang out with some friends of mine up in Northern Ohio. To say the Lord blessed my visit is the understatement of the year, I do not have the space or time to write out here everything God did for and through me these last two weeks. One of the major (as if I could put a price on Gods blessings), things that God did I would like to share with you this week.

    I arrived in Toledo on Monday, Aug. 29 which some of you probably know, is my birthday. The past few years I have gotten in the habit of asking the Lord for something specific from Him for my birthday, something that only He knows or something that only He can provide. I didn't really have anything that I needed this year, but I decided to pray for sunflowers because of how much the flowers He had given me a few weeks prior had meant to me. I just wanted something small but personal. Well, Monday came and went, it was a travel day for me so I wasn't able to do much, but Tuesday turned out to be pretty special. I was working at a coffee shop in the morning, getting some office work done, when my friend, who I was staying with, texted me that she was meeting some friends at a flower farm and asked if I would like to come. I, of course, said, YES! I left almost immediately from the coffee shop and consequently beat everyone else there by about 30 minutes. I got there and while I was waiting, started a conversation with the girl running the stand. She was a teenager and to be honest, I didn't really expect her to be interested in my ministry just because teenagers typically aren't. The opposite was true! She was ecstatic when I told her about my ministry and travels. She had never met a missionary before and was very interested in what I had to say, had several questions for me. She attended another Baptist church in the area and thought it was so neat that I was in town. We really hit it off and exchanged numbers before I met up with my friends to pick flowers. Right before I walked away, she handed me something and said, 'The Lord wants me to give this to you.' I pulled my hand back to see a wad of cash. The lightbulbs in my head went off: 'Happy Birthday! - God.' 

    I felt like jumping out of my skin (more than normal). It is so incredible to see God answer specific prayers! And I got to pick these Sunflowers myself! 

'Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,...'

-Eph. 3:20

    Fast forward about a week, I had been corresponding off and on with this teen girl I had met, she asked if we could go out for coffee before I left town. There is always time for coffee! I said absolutely and we set a time. She brought her mom and twin brother to meet me. We had a great time talking, they had lots of questions about my travels and about Brazil. Towards the end, her mom asked me to share my salvation testimony, which I eagerly shared, asking for hers. She gladly shared her testimony with me, telling how she had gotten saved after some difficult trials in her life, and then I asked her daughter for her testimony and she shared hers as well. Afterwards I turned to her brother and asked him for his. He told me he had never given such a thing much thought, and the Lord opens up the opportunity for me to give him a clear presentation of the gospel! I was able to take my time, answer his questions and I truly believe that he understood and accepted Gods gift of eternal life right there in that coffee shop. 

Afterwards I learned from his sister, he lives with his dad, and she and her mom had been praying for years for someone to witness to him and for him to get saved! They were so excited about what had happened and I was so excited to get to share it with them. They also had the opportunity to attend a night of missions conference with me at the church I was visiting and meet some friends that I had made as well! 

How great is our God! Truly only God could bring something like this to pass. It is truly incredible to watch Him work and get to be a part of it!

Thank you so much for your prayers this week! Me and Ray are both doing well, please continue to keep us both in your prayers :)

-Beca